


Supply Run

by warlockholmesx (hungryghost)



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, Original Work
Genre: Based on a Dungeons & Dragons Game, Centaurs, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Gruul Clans, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Inspired by a Community Cast Writing Prompt, Interspecies Relationship(s), Ravnica (Magic: The Gathering), Simic Combine, Vedalken, and her Gruul lover tries to help her name them, centaur/vedalken ships ftw, in which a Simic scientist invented glow sticks, just Simic scientist/Gruul warrior things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:29:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24870832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hungryghost/pseuds/warlockholmesx
Summary: When Eiis' adventuring party needs extra supplies for their foray into an underwater section of the Undercity, Eiis calls on her favorite Simic scientist-slash-spy—who arrives with more than what the centaur expected.----A short fic inspired by Community Cast's Week #1 writing prompt, "glow stick".
Relationships: Original D&D Character(s)/Original D&D Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Supply Run

In the darkness of the alleyway in Precinct Five, Eiis let out a long, ragged sigh. After an hour breathing in the fresh air of Ravnica, soon she would be returning to the Undercity. And while the city air wasn’t actually  _ that _ fresh, it was much better than the damp, stuffy air in the deepest, darkest parts of Ravnica.

Technically the centaur didn’t belong in the Undercity; nor did her party, the Furies, though they had been contracted by the Guildpact to look for a rogue Boros commander last spotted there. But technically, Eiis shouldn’t be in love with a Simic spy, either, so she was breaking a lot of rules.

And because she was Gruul, she didn’t really care.

Said Simic spy looked up at Eiis from where she was digging through the contents of her satchel and smiled at her. The blue-skinned vedalken stood at 5’10”, tall and slender, and if that didn’t make her literally stand out amongst the millions of humanoids in Ravnica, her biological enhancements did. 

Vela was one of the Combine’s modified individuals, tailored to be more amphibious; her eyes were black and fishlike, black markings running up the back of her head, from her nape to her eyes. Her nose was flatter than normal humanoids’ and closer to slits, and on her neck were nearly invisible gills, hidden by elegant, translucent red fins that shifted when she moved.

Despite the late hour and the shadiness of the maze of alleyways, Eiis couldn’t help smiling back. A centaur warrior from the Gruul clans, Eiis was tall and muscled, with brown skin and long black dreadlocks that cascaded down her back. Where Vela wore a low blouse and trousers in Simic blues and greens, Eiis wore the brick reds of the Gruul adorned with animal bones: a boar-tooth necklace around her neck, a pauldron with giant boar tusks on her left shoulder, and matching gauntlets. Her glossy black equine half shone in the light from the lampposts beyond them.

The two women were in an alley, one of the places where the Undercity’s upper levels met Precinct Five. It was sheer luck that one of the adventurers whom Eiis’ party had met down below, used to the winding, sprawling passageways of the Undercity, had told them that they were as close to Zonot Seven as they could get, and offered to cast a spell to contact someone for supplies before they ventured into a section of the Undercity that was rumored to be deep underwater. 

Eiis, naturally, had chosen Vela, a Simic scientist who had accompanied the party into their first foray into the Red Wastes a couple of weeks ago—but who was more than a contact to Eiis. After all, it was Vela who had saved Eiis from a giant boar attack and nursed her back to health months ago; Vela, whose hands were gentle on Eiis whenever she patched her up after battle; Vela, who had fumbled over her words on their last night in Ragtag Stop, and kissed Eiis, and led her to bed.

And despite the late hour and the suddenness of Eiis’ message… Vela provided.

  
  


Upon approaching the rendezvous point earlier that evening, Vela had seemed tense, almost unsure if she were walking into a trap. Now, with Eiis crouched next to her, warm and familiar, Vela seemed more relaxed; the tension in her shoulders gone, she glanced at Eiis, her dark eyes softening. 

“You know, sending me a message two hours ago to meet you, well,  _now_ , barely gave me any time to get back into the lab tonight,” Vela admonished gently. “But it was you, so…” Her cheeks flushed. “I looked through my stocks in the lab and found some things that might help you.” 

Vela methodically began pulling items out of her bag, with a light commentary as she revealed each one. A potion wrapped in leather bindings for safekeeping, that, when unwrapped, revealed a vial with a cloudy green liquid inside. (“You took my last potion of water breathing in the Red Wastes, but I borrowed another.”) A long dagger that looked like it was made out of the spines of a large shark, with tips that glowed a sickly green. (“Won it in a bet—I think you’d like this.”) A decanter that Vela promised would provide an infinite supply of fresh, clean water. (“You know how much I like to moisturize...”)

“And this.”

Vela held out a dozen thin tubes, each about a foot long. At a glance, they looked like they were ghostly white, but Eiis noticed different hues beneath the surface: pale green, muted fuchsia, dull yellow. 

Eiis blinked. “What is that?”

“Oh, this?” Vela asked casually, handing them over to Eiis, but Eiis wasn’t fooled; there was a hint of barely disguised pride on the spy’s face as Eiis held the tubes up to her face. “They’re a little invention my team has been working on, inspired by bioluminescent algae. Let me show you.” 

The vedalken took one tube from Eiis, gently brushing Eiis’ hand with her knuckle, before continuing. “So, we thought we could create a nontoxic, non-magical light source for underwater exploration, like marking trails and treasure and so forth,” Vela said. “And after a lot of experiments, and some collaboration with Izzet,” she added in an undertone, “we made this.”

Vela held the tube at both ends, took a deep breath, and broke it cleanly in half.

Eiis watched as the tube suddenly began to glow. Starting from the break, the dull green suddenly flared to a lively neon hue, spreading throughout the still intact tube. And while the centaur had seen magic in her chieftain’s druidic spells, and Izzet technology, too, she’d  _ never _ seen anything like this. 

“Well,  _shit_ ,” Eiis said approvingly, her voice warm as she peered closer at the glowing tube. “What’s it called, then?”

Vela preened. “Bioluxinders.”

Eiis blinked. “Bio-what?”

Vela’s cheeks flushed prettily, a darker shade of blue beneath her blue skin. “Bioluxinders. Okay, we’re still workshopping that,” she admitted, “but one of our Izzet contacts threw out ‘biolux convergers’ and cackled maniacally, and he might have been joking, but we didn’t want  _ that _ to make it to the next phase.”

A laugh bubbled up in Eiis’ throat, and she looked down at the tube in Vela’s hands. “It looks more like a light tube than a bioluxicle—“

“Bioluxinder,” Vela corrected.

“—bioluxinder, bioloxodon, whatever,” teased Eiis, chuckling at Vela’s sigh. She held out her hand for the tube.

Once Vela deposited the light tube in her hands, the centaur inspected it. The neon green hue throughout the tube was somewhat uneven—there was a blockage there—and Eiis _hmmm_ ed out loud before cracking the tube again. At the movement, the next section of the tube flared to life, and the entire tube became an even shade of neon green. Eiis nodded approvingly.

“I think I know what this is,” Eiis mused. “It’s a light wand.”

“ _No_ , Eiis.”

“A sun tube,” she said.

“If that’s what the sun looks like in the Rubblebelt, I’m really concerned about you,” Vela quipped, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips.

Eiis twirled the light tube between her fingers. Closing her eyes, she raised it to her nose and gave it a good sniff (which gave her nothing, because the tube smelled like a whole lot of nothing). She looked up.

“Glow stick,” Eiis said, nodding decisively. “ _Definitely_ a glow stick.”

Vela laughed out loud. “Hold on,” she began, “my guild spent days underwater, _weeks_ developing this, and you want to call it—”

Eiis nodded solemnly. “A glow stick.” She held in the beginnings of a laugh, glancing up from between her lashes to watch the vedalken shake her head.

“Unbelievable,” Vela muttered. 

“It’s a stick and it glows,” Eiis pointed out.

Vela groaned. “I _know_ ,” she sighed, looking adorably frustrated, and Eiis couldn’t help it—the warrior leaned down, her hand cupping Vela’s chin, and gave her a quick kiss.

Eiis felt Vela relax beneath her hands; she felt the moment the frown became a smile, and smiled against Vela’s lips as the vedalken’s arms reached up and looped around Eiis’ neck, pulling her closer. The centaur chuckled deep in her throat and ran her hands down from Vela’s face to her sides, resting at her waist, and after another soft kiss, pressed her lips to Vela's ear.

“I think it’s a very brilliant, _very_ useful invention,” Eiis murmured into Vela’s neck.

“I know.”

“I think you’re brilliant for making it.”

A chuckle. “Thank you.”

“No, thank _you_.” Eiis squeezed Vela more tightly for a moment, sinking into her warmth. “And now that I’ve flirted with you for a couple of hours, leaving my party in the Undercity undefended…” Eiis felt Vela chuckle again. “I think it’s time for me to go, yeah?”

Vela pulled away reluctantly, letting out a little sigh. “ _Yeah._ ” Her hands lingered on Eiis’ shoulders, her touch warm in the cold autumn evening. “Ugh, we barely even got to talk, but Max and the others are probably down there waiting for you.” 

“Probably. If they aren’t dead,” Eiis said under her breath.

Vela grinned. “I hope not.”

Eiis began to pack away the items, and Vela closed her own bag and pulled her cloak hood over her bald head, immediately becoming just another Ravnican traveller in the darkness. Eiis donned her own cloak as well, about to take one unenthusiastic step away. But she couldn’t help saying one more thing.

“I’ll see you soon, glow stick,” Eiis whispered, and Vela laughed out loud, shook her head, and placed her smooth hand on Eiis’ cheek, looking deep into Eiis’ blue eyes with her black ones.

“Eiis.”

Eiis grinned. “Yeah?”

“Call me glow stick one more time and I _will_ hurt you.”

Eiis let out a low laugh. “I’ll be counting on it.” The centaur took Vela’s hand from her cheek and kissed the back of it, winked, and let go, before making her way through the streets of Ravnica again. Down the winding alleyways she went once more, on to the Undercity, where her friends were waiting. Now armed with a new weapon, supplies, and, well. Glow sticks.

**Author's Note:**

> Eiis and Vela are my D&D character and her love interest, respectively, from a Ravnica campaign I'm in, and I love them. If you liked this fic or wanna talk Ravnica campaigns and characters, please let me know! I'm always excited to hear from other D&D players.
> 
> Wanna know what Eiis looks like? I recently won an art raffle from @little_amb on Twitter, and she drew Eiis looking pretty damn awesome [here](https://imgur.com/a/xIdQ75t). She also posted it on Twitter [here](https://twitter.com/little_amb/status/1274722386923970560?s=20). Thanks, Amb! Follow her on Twitter at @little_amb.
> 
> If you've been wondering how Vela looks, [here's an artwork of her](https://imgur.com/a/lxzQpB3). This artwork of Vela was commissioned for my own personal use, and created by the immensely skilled Jenn So. Thanks, Jenn! Find her on Twitter at @hellojennso and Tumblr at @jennlso.


End file.
